Woman hits back at cyberbullies after anti-Duterte post

A woman is hitting back hard at cyberbullies who have been attacking her for a Facebook post against presidential bet Rodrigo Duterte.

In a new post on Thursday, environmental advocate Ayeen Karunungan said that she had filed police reports on the threats she had received online.

"I am no longer taking this lightly. I have filed a police report yesterday. Oo, naka-blotter lahat nang taong nagbanta sa akin ng rape at pagpatay sakin," she wrote.

Karunungan told GMA News Online that the issue began after a graphic saying she would be "actively campaigning against" Duterte went viral.

Her declaration was accompanied by an image saying that the mayor is a "lazy choice."

She wrote, "No one man can solve the problem. Discipline comes from ourselves. It takes everyone to build a nation. Killing should not be an option."

Her post was shared nearly 4,000 times and the comments section attracted different reactions. Some were civil ("Kulang pa rin 'yan. We also need someone that can LEAD and has POLITICAL WILL to enforce policies that will surely benefit the country in the long run. #PilipinasDu30") while others had more abrasive sentiments ("sayang apelyedo mo iha di ka nag iisip!").

Message requests

On Thursday, Karunungan discovered the "message request" inbox in Facebook messenger. The application's filtering system had prevented her from seeing numerous private messages (PMs) from people who declared themselves to be Duterte supporters.

Karunungan took screencaps and shared the more threatening messages sent to her, contrasting their claims that they want a more disciplined nation, but providing "such great examples of how (they) want the Philippines to be."

After the screenshots of the PMs went viral, Karunungan was surprised to learn that her posts have been reported and that she has been blocked from her account.

She was first locked out on Thursday for 24 hours. She logged in again on Friday afternoon and after she uploaded a few more screenshots, she was blocked again—this time for three days.

"They reported the photos I uploaded that threaten me," she said, pertaining to posts where people were saying, "Ma-rape ka sana" and "Ma-massacre sana pamilya mo."

Despite the nature of the messages and being locked out of her account, Karunungan said she's "actually okay."

"Despite the threats and hate messages, lots of people also messaged me — including Duterte supporters, saying sorry," she said. "So if anything at least many people still have decency and humanity."

No to cyberbullying

Last month, Duterte asked his supporters to stop bullying his critics on social media after University of the Phlippines-Los Baños student Stephen Villena found himself at the receiving end of criticisms and death threats online from the mayor's supporters.

“We respect each other's opinions... We always say that it's okay if we disagree. And I may not agree with what you said or say, but I will defend your right to say it. That's how it should be,” Duterte told reporters in Tacloban City.

His youngest son, 28-year-old Sebastian who is leading the youth volunteers for Duterte, also asked supporters to put an end to cyberbullying, especially sending threats to critics.

“We reject and condemn cyberbullying because it is a criminal offense... There is no way that engaging in cyberbullying or issuing death threats to the critics of my father will help his campaign,” he said.

Online discourse

Karunungan admits to engaging some of the Facebook users who comment on her posts against Duterte, but says she refrains from using "bobo" or "tanga" or anything degrading.

"Yung sinasagot ko 'yung may logical arguments," she said, "Medyo sarcastic minsan."

As an example, she said she replied to someone who asked "So you should be worshiped for your knowledge on climate change?" with "Yes, worship me."

She added, "I don't understand how anything ever merits a death threat."

She and her family are now exploring further legal options, but have been advised to not discuss the matter yet. —JST, GMA News